Page:Touchstone (Wharton 1900).djvu/169



Eight pieces of delicate texture and artistic conception. Every one of them has the external shape and coloring of the world in which we mingle day by day, and every one of them is at heart a poignant spiritual tragedy. This may sound like extravagant praise, but no conventional commendation would be adequate for such a book. Between these stories and those of the ordinary entertaining sort there is a great gulf fixed.—The Dial.

Marked by great technical skill, by keen humor, and by a style which is individual and striking. There is a quality of distinction about her work not merely of style but of character.—The New York Sun.

This book of short stories comes out of America, and it is good. It is very good. Mrs. Wharton is one of the few to grasp that obvious but much neglected fact that the first business of a writer is to be able to write. "The Greater Inclination" is distinguished and delightful.—The Academy.

If we were to single out one book from those that have been published this season as exhibiting in the highest degree that